Episode 705
In the news today, Safari saves your bacon with a hole-patching update, and NASA says it's better at math than teenagers (which we fervently hope is true). Yahoo and Google get closer to a deal, which we fervently hope is just going to happen, already, so we can quit speculating, and we're planning our summer road trip to Pittsburgh. Stories Covered NASA statement on student asteroid calculations http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/apr/HQ_08103_student_asteroid_calculations.html Yahoo-Google deal advances http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920997-7.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120839839184321833.html Microsoft spoof video http://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9920713-60.html Movies and TV shows coming to PS3? http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920204-7.html Psystar explains the move http://www.psystar.com/updates.html NBC to Apple: Build antipiracy into iTunes http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920399-7.html Safari update fixes serious security flaws http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/safari-311-upda.html Some 12 percent of consumers 'borrow' unsecured Wi-Fi http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/04/17/149201.shtml Google tweaked search 450 times in 2007 http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9921148-7.html Pittsburgh museum plans 'largest national' robotics exhibition http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/17/pittsburgh-museum-plans-largest-national-robotics-exhibition/ Asus M70 1TB laptop screams 'FIRST!!!' http://gizmodo.com/380885/asus-m70-one-terabyte-laptop-screams-first We can farm the Moon! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7351437.stm From The Phones Johan in Sweden Wants an explanation. Amanda Atlanta My theory on how Twitter can make money. In the Forums Emails Twitter’s Biz Hi. This is Toby the, uh, technology enthusiast in Amsterdam. Re: how will Twitter make money? Just by chance, I happened to ask Biz Stone of Twitter and Jyri Engestrom of Jaiku how they plan to make money while they were visiting here for a conference last summer. This was about 2 weeks before Google bought Jaiku. Biz Stone’s answer: “Crunching through the content of (millions of) 140 character messages is interesting. Some of our business models we’ve been working on in the wings--we’re not focusing all our attention on it until we think we’re worthy--some of it includes hired messaging. And more traffic is better for the business. So it ends up being for gain in the long run. (me: was that higher or hired messaging? You mean charge your users for messages?) “Well, we don’t charge our users for messages, but as we become more popular around the world and start to generate a lot of traffic, the (telecom) operators want to get in touch with us because their business is generating more traffic. So suddenly our business interests are aligned. And that’s something we’re going to be doing more and more as time goes by is making more contact with telecom operators around the world to find how we can help each other.” (me: Yeah. I don’t really understand that). “Neither do we.” Jyri Engstrom’s answer: “Our plan is to keep the basic service free, but ad supported. Right now you’re not getting ads, but in the future, the most likely scenario is that there would be ads embedded in the stream of updates.” Interesting that Google bought Jaiku instead of Twitter, despite Jaiku’s being smaller. I guess Twitter’s business model could be capitalizing on their database (by selling market research, for instance), inserting adverts in the stream, or being bought. Love the show, but not in *that* way. --Toby 3G iPhone Hey Buzz Out Loud crew, have some news/rumors to share. I have a very close friend whom I hadn’t seen in several weeks, who just so happens to be an AT&T Signals Engineer. I ran into him last night downtown, and asked him where he had been lately, to which he responded “We’ve been working like crazy trying to get our 3G service ready for the new iPhone coming out next month”. That’s right, apparently the AT&T people are currently ramping up their network for what the employees are being told is a May release date for JesusPhone2.0. Perhaps just hearsay, perhaps just blowing smoke up my rear, perhaps honest truth. You be the judge. --Matt from Pittsburgh Solving the last mile problem Dear Tom: As you were talking about solving the last mile problem in episode 702, I have the solution to that! Use PLC (power line communication) technology! This is what we are going to do in Iran; the company that I work for an exclusive distributor of Corinex Company which is one of the leaders is this technology. So there will be no cables involved anymore and your data and bandwidth is transferred via electric cable that you already have in your city, neighborhood and your house! Now the max bandwidth that this technology supports is up to 200Mbps in physical layer and it will be up to 600Mbps in 2009. We are planning to use this technology in wide range in Iran, and I think it should be used with big ISPs in USA too. As an IT Manager, I think PLC is not the only way to solve the last mile problem, but it's one of the best alternatives. By the way in episode 695, Molly read my e-mail about WiMax, I just wanted to point out the pronunciation of my name was correct! Of course Tom said the exact correct pronunciation. Love the show Best Regards --Siavash Ghahremany Svang I just wanted to say, “Thank you” for introducing me to Svang, albeit indirectly. I just bought their CD off of iTunes and I’m loving the hell out of it. BOL does tech news, yes, but from now on I’m listening solely to be introduced to new music. --Barry Blue-Jeans responds to Monster - This e-mail could alternately be titled “Kurt Denke, Buzztown Hero” Hi JaMoTo, Darque from watch.bol here. I just got finished reading Kurt Denke’s response to Monster in its entirety. I must say I was blown away. That was one of the most beautifully worded documents I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is always stirring to see the English language used at this artistic level of Legal snarkiness. It is with that in mind I would like to ask for some official Buzztown recognition of Mr. Denke. Can we make up an award? We can even give it a cute nickname like, “Buzzy”. I just think some semiofficial recognition would possibly encourage others to stand up to bigger corporations and be funny at the same time. Thank you so much for bringing this letter to My attention. --Jason aka Darque p.s. Please have Molly use her special grammar powers on this e-mail if it makes it into the shownotes. Iron Man Hello Buzz Crew, In episode 703, the part of the interview at Comic Book Resources referenced by Slashdot was not about the Iron Man movie, but about writer Matt Fraction’s new comic book series The Invincible Iron Man. What Matt was trying to say is that while Stark is an innovator, he’s become somewhat set in his ways and a lot of his company’s tech, especially the Iron Man armor, is proprietary as H-E-double hockey sticks. Zeke Stane (son of the Stane character that’s being used in the movie) on the other hand is in a lot a ways like Tony was in his younger days, and is out to destroy him, both financially and on the battlefield. Also any listeners of BOL that like comics should try to find a copy of Fraction’s Five Fists of Science, in which Mark Twain and Nicola Tesla work together to thwart the evil plans of JD Morgan and Thomas Edison. Love the show guys. Mark from Covington, Ky. Winner is…BOL! CONGRATULATIONS BOL!!! You’re recording episode 705 today… There are now officially more episodes of Buzz Out Loud than episodes of Star Trek!! (There are only 704 live-action episodes of Trek… ;) …This has nothing to do with anything… But its true! Best, --Brian from Los Angeles Additional Notes After The Credits Category:Episodes